top of page
Freedom concept_ Silhouette of bird flying and broken chains at autumn mountain sunset bac

                                                                 Prison Hope Assessment

​

                                                  The Prison Hope Scale

​

Contact us for more information on this assessment tool. 

​

The Prison Environment Hope Scale is designed to assess the extent to which a prison environment fosters the four cardinal elements of hope: attachment, survival, mastery, and spirituality.

 

The development of the P-Hope derived from an integration of Scioli’s model of hope with Sykes’ (1958) seminal work on the frustrations of imprisonment as well as Viktor Frankl’s (1959 meditations on his experience in the Nazi's Auschwitz prison camp. 

 

Sykes (1958) identified the following “prisoner deprivations”: intimacy (attachment), security and liberty (survival), and autonomy (mastery).  Frankl’s WWII imprisonment led him to declare that meaning in life and a higher purpose (spirituality) were the central motivational forces in life, regardless of one's circumstances. 

 

The contents of this scale were derived using formal test development procedures to assure reliability and validity. 

 

The final set of items were selected by assessing former prisoner’s ratings of the importance associated with specific elements of their prison experience.  

 

Norms are based on the responses of 200 former prisoners, 100 males and 100 females.   

​

  • Prison Hopefulness Score (Overall)

  • Prison Trust Score

  • Prison Support Score

  • Prison Empowerment Score

  • Prison Spirit Score       

 

Scale Length: 16 Items

Time Required: 3 Minutes

​

 

Potential Applications at the Group Level 

​

  • Program development (e.g. prison reform initiatives)

  • Program evaluation (e.g., Accreditation reviews)

  • Prison-based research (e.g., grant-funded)

  • Public relations (e.g., linked to fund-raising, expansion of infrastructure, etc.)

bottom of page